We have lived in our home for 10 years now. It was a dream house to me when I bought it and still is but it has shown some signs of wear, children, pets, and just plain living, especially in the family room carpet. The previous owners were a couple with no children or pets, as evidenced by their choice of family room carpet... off white berber. Ugh. Let me tell you that by the time you raise children and suffer through aging pets in the room that you use most, that off-white berber shows some definite signs of it! Even with frequent cleaning (and maybe because of frequent cleaning with detergents that trap and attract even more dirt), the carpet is not fit for entertaining.
We always had intentions of replacing it but with the multiple blows of recent years to our incomes and re-adjusting our lives to be debt-free we have put off the replacement of the flooring in that room. Not to mention, we wanted to wait until the last animal was gone from the house and the youngest was a little bit older. I have refrained from entertaining the last few years because of the shape of the carpet in that room and been patiently waiting for the finances and stars to align for us to get it replaced. NOW THE TIME HAS COME!!
I can't tell you how grateful I am! I am not complaining a bit about having to wait for this day, because we feel it is important to make a big purchase like flooring WITHOUT using credit, but by paying for it with saved cash $. In addition to that great reason for waiting, my tastes have changed significantly over the last few years and now instead of automatically buying new carpet, we are opting to put a wood floor down in that room. We have chosen a rustic hickory Pergo flooring that we can put down ourselves in that room. I am confident that it will be well worth the wait and I have a timeline to have it done by Thanksgiving! I am GRATEFUL for opportunities like this to test my patience and serenity....
Here is what our family room looks like now, complete with little girl reading on couch.
In the picture below you can see the new floor boards up against the fireplace... they look so rich and wonderful!
In this picture below, we have started to take up the carpet in the eastern half of the room and found a sub-floor of particle board underneath. Since my talented husband spent a sizable amount of time as a flooring installer in his younger days, he will do all the work and do it well! We will first place more boarding on top of the current sub-floor and then install the pergo flooring (already has a padding on the back) over the top of that floor.
This picture is a view of the hallway to the bathroom. The family room is part of this and just to the left of the bar in the picture. This hallway was the worst stained carpet. Won't it look wonderful with a rich new wood floor? I can't wait! See my dehydrator there on the cutting board on the bar? That is its permanent home.
In above picture you can see a close up of the flooring we chose laying up close to the back of the bar, which is paneled, and the cream baseboards.
I thought you might be interested in following our home improvement project as we hammer our fingers, step on carpet tacks, suffer through sore knees, paint, saw, fill our trash bin outside, and work to get this floor looking beautiful. Pictures will be posted later as the project continues and is finished.
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